Lullaby
Lullaby is the fourth episode of Tech 10: Star Spirit. Episode to an extravagant office on the top story of a skyscraper. Near the window is a very basic, out-of-place work desk and chair. The desk is piled paperwork, and sitting on the chair is Isaac Logical, looking over a paper. Isaac: “Bah! Another lawsuit?! How many signs do I have to put up around Taros 9’s acid pools before these idiots get the memo?!” Isaac tossed the paper aside in a huff and started sorting through another pile. It took only a few moments for another paper to catch his attention and elicit a groan. holds up the paper, showing that it’s labeled ‘Urgent: Suspected Fraud’. Isaac: “Oh, great, another one of these things. It’s never anything important either, usually just some old person forgetting how many bags they brought or whatever.” He read through the paper, pausing as he reached the specifics of the case. Isaac: *Narrowing his eyes* “Hold on a second, this report is...” pulls open a drawer in his desk and rummages through various files, eventually pulling out two in particular and laying them on top of the desk. Isaac: *Looking over the files* “I was right. Three different cases reported at three different times during the past few weeks, but all with inordinately similar circumstances.” After looking through the reports a few more times, just to make sure, he pushed himself away from his desk and put away his reading glasses. Isaac: “I think it’s about time I did some internal investigations.” ---- to a high school in the middle of the afternoon. The students are all rushing out of the building at high speeds, rushing to either a waiting car or the bus. Nova and Theo are walking off to the side together, away from the crowd. Nova: “Hey, is it just me, or does it seem like our classmates keep going down in number?” Theo: “I can’t say I’ve noticed anything in particular. What do you mean?” Nova: “Seriously? You haven’t noticed that we started out with a full classroom and now only about three-quarters of the desks are filled?” Theo: “As far as I know, there were never people sitting there in the first place.” Nova: “Come on, stop screwing around. You don’t think there’s anything weird going on?” Theo: “The only weird thing here is you. How exactly are you assuming that we ever had a full classroom?” Nova: “By remembering it, you dork. What’s with you today?” Theo: “What’s with you? Are you just making stuff up?” Nova: “Are you-...you know what, fine, forget it.” Theo shrugged in response. A few seconds later, his cell phone began ringing. Theo: *Answering the phone* “Hey, it’s Theo...Mhm...okay, we’ll be right there.” Nova: “I’m guessing that was Alpha?” Theo: “Yep. She wants us on-base ASAP.” Nova: “She mention why?” Theo: “Nope. Let’s roll.” ---- to inside the main room of Plumber Base UT1. Theo and Nova are speaking with Alpha. Nova: “So, what life-threatening thingamabob are we dealing with today?” Alpha: “I don’t know.” Nova: “Very informative.” Alpha: “''If you would let me finish'', we do not have any information on the cause of the current threat at hand. However, we do have a significant amount of data on its effects.” Theo: “Care to elaborate?” Alpha: *Turns to a computer console* “Please direct your attention to the monitor.” The monitor above the console lit up with camera stills of various children and teenagers. Nova: “You just keep pictures of random kids lying around, Alpha?” Alpha: “These individuals are hardly ‘random’. Each and every one of them has gone missing in the past few weeks. These are their last appearances our cameras picked up.” Theo: “Aren’t there cameras all over the city? You should have some footage of what happened to at least one of them.” Alpha: “Unfortunately for that idea, there are areas our cameras do not monitor for privacy purposes, such as private residences and institutions.” Theo: “Which means that they were probably abducted straight from their own houses.” Alpha: “Right.” Theo: “Not to sound flippant or anything, but isn’t this really something the FBI or whatever should look into? We can usually take care of things like this, but we’re not prepared to handle anything like a hostage situation.” Alpha: “I wish it was that simple. The oddest thing about these missing children is that everyone that would notice them having gone missing appears to have had their memories wiped of their existence. I shouldn’t need to tell you that something that can selectively manipulate memory loss like that is too dangerous to send in ordinary Earth agencies.” Nova: *Examining the screen* “Hang on a second, I recognize some of these guys! They’re those people that went missing from class!” Theo: *Looks up at the screen* “I don’t recognize anybody up there.” The two slowly looked at each other with looks of dawning realization. Nova: “Okay, I guess if everyone’s getting their memories screwed up or whatever, it makes sense that Theo wouldn’t be able to remember anyone. But how do I remember them?” Alpha: “Your ‘Swarm 2’ is powered by Void Energy, which protects the user from mental tampering of any sort.” Nova: “Sweet.” Alpha: “Well, regardless, there is one last piece of evidence I need to show you.” Theo: “Go ahead.” Alpha pulled up a diagram of the area on the monitor. Several odd holes were dotted within a few feet of some of the houses. Alpha: “These holes have appeared behind the houses of each abducted child. I’ve tried running more in-depth scans, but whatever they lead into seems to be made of a material too dense for scanner waves to penetrate.” Theo: “And you want us to see what’s down there?” Alpha: “In a nutshell, yes. We don’t know exactly what’s happening down there, so it’s imperative that you find and recover the abducted children as soon as you can.” Theo: “Let’s just hope there are still people left to find...” ---- to the inside of a large underground tunnel. The walls of the tunnel seem to be made of an incredibly dense organic material. A lone fiery humanoid with a somewhat armored appearance is walking through the tunnel, using a flame conjured in its right hand to light the path. It intensifies the flame, revealing it to be Isaac’s ‘Heatjet’ transformation. Heatjet: “Well, I can’t say I was expecting to go spelunking when I woke up this morning.” He continued walking down the tunnel, sighing in frustration. Heatjet: “You’d think I’d be more aware of stuff like this happening in my own damn city, but no, some creep has the time to build an entire underground tunnel network for some reason.” After a few more minutes of walking, he paused for a moment. Heatjet: “Hold on a second, where am I even going?” There were a few moments of silence. Heatjet: “I should probably head back to that weird hole I came in through.” He turned and started walking back what he thought was the way he came. An hour later, it became apparent his initial presumption was incorrect. Heatjet: “You know what, screw it. I’m teleporting out of here.” He reached down and fiddled the SpecTrix 3’s symbol. After a bit of beeping, the symbol returned an error message. Heatjet: “Aaand this stuff’s too dense to teleport out of. Terrific.” ---- to Theo and Nova standing above the base of a hole. They peer down into it, then exchange worried looks. Theo: “Well, it’s now or never.” Nova: “Hey, on the bright side, the StarTrix should perform better down there.” Theo: “Only a little, but yeah, I guess.” The two jumped into the hole, swiftly being enveloped in darkness. Nova summoned a lantern to light the area around them. They began walking forward, observing the walls of the tunnels surrounding them as they went. Theo: “Is it just me, or are these walls a bit...weird?” Nova: “Nah, they’re definitely made of something screwy.” They continued on in silence for a few minutes. Nova: “Hey, do you have any idea where we’re going?” Theo: “Not a clue.” Nova: “So we’re just kinda wandering around, hoping we hit something?” Theo: “Basically.” There were a few more moments of silence. Nova: “What do you think’s down here, anyways?” Theo: “Probably clowns. Or Tim Curry.” Nova: “Why not both?” The two laughed at their own stupid joke for a few moments. Theo: “Seriously though, I really hope whatever it is isn’t that powerful. The only thing I have that’s good for direct fighting in dark environments like this is Holy Diver.” Nova: “What about All Star?” Theo: “At this point, I’d like to have him as my go-to, but he gets weaker without exposure to sunlight. That’s gonna be a huge hindrance while fighting underground.” Nova: “Oh. You know, your dad really should’ve given you a fire alien.” Theo: “I know, right?! That would’ve come in handy a lot when we were fighting Pyros!” Before Nova could reply, a soft skittering suddenly began to emanate from further down the tunnel. The two froze as the sound got closer and louder, with it eventually becoming apparent that the skittering was coming from a swarm of something rather than a single creature. Nova held up the lantern as the two held their breath in tense anticipation. After a few moments, the approaching creatures suddenly entered the light of the lantern, revealing themselves to be a massive swarm of 3-foot wide spider-like creatures. Nova: “Oh, holy hell no!” Theo swiftly pulled up the SpecTrix and transformed into Holy Diver, summoning a drill and slamming it into the ground, sending out a shockwave that sent some of the spiders flying. Nova retracted the front door of the lantern, shooting out a massive stream of magenta fire at the approaching swarm. They kept up their attack, holding back as much of the swarm as they could. Holy Diver, who was closer to the swarm, was quickly overwhelmed, more spiders covering him than he could drill apart and shake off. The weight of the swarm eventually pressed down on the StarTrix symbol, unintentionally detransforming him. Unable to escape, he started to get dragged away by the swarm. Nova: *Turning to Theo* “Theo!” Theo: *Struggling with the spiders* “Nova, get out of here! Find my dad, he should be able to track me down!” Nova: “What about you?!” Theo: “I’ll be-” *Gets cut off by a spider stepping on his head; quickly swats it away* “-fine!” Theo quickly reached for his wrist, managing to pull off the StarTrix and toss it to Nova. Nova: *Catches the StarTrix* “What are you doing?!” Theo: “It’s too late for me no matter what I turn into! Use Move Along to get out of here! Hurry!” Before Nova could reply, Theo was completely enveloped in spiders and swiftly dragged off down the tunnel. The swarm quickly turned its attention to her, crawling forwards at an incredibly fast pace. Wasting no time, she quickly slipped on the StarTrix and, after some fumbling, managed to turn into Move Along. Just before the swarm hit her, she took off in the opposite direction, zooming back the way she and Theo had come. She managed to outrun the swarm, but didn’t pause to look back. After some ten minutes, however, it became very clear that she had somehow gotten lost along the way, as their entrance was nowhere to be found. She eventually paused to get a look at her surroundings, finding that she was utterly lost. Along: “You’ve got to be kidding me! Did I pass it or something?!” She took a few moments to think. Along: “Okay, just think about this logically. I probably passed it because, well, I have no idea what I’m doing with this thing. If I go back and carefully retrace my steps, I should be able to find my way out. I just need to get there before those spider things do, and I should be good to go.” Before she could take action on that plan, however, she heard a loud running noise heading her way, apparently going at a speed similar to Move Along’s. She moved to run, but was interrupted by the running thing suddenly getting a huge boost of speed and screeching to a halt in front of her. Parts of it emitted a teal glow that revealed its features, showing it to be a short, gold and black robotic humanoid with lightning-shaped horns and ports lining its arms. The SpecTrix 3 symbol was on its chest, giving final evidence that this was actually Isaac’s ‘Terminano’ transformation. Terminano: “Theo?! What the hell are you doing down here?!” Along: “Mr. Logical?!” Terminano: “...What did you just call me?” Move Along pressed down on the StarTrix symbol, reverting back to Nova. Nova: “Theo’s in trouble. He told me to come find you, but I couldn’t find the exit!” Terminano: “What happened?” Nova: “We got attacked by a swarm of spider things, and Theo got dragged off!” Terminano: “Spiders? Dammit, I knew I should’ve given him a fire alien!” Nova: “That’s what we said!” Terminano: “Okay, let’s calm down for a moment. Theo’s tougher than most people for...a couple reasons, so he should be able to hold out until we get to wherever he is. I’ll see if i can use Golurth to track him down.” Isaac twisted the SpecTrix symbol on his chest and pressed down on it, transforming into a large, gray and brown, golem-like horned alien. He held out his right hand, causing it to glow with a dark energy that lit up the area. Isaac/Golurth: “Okay, I’m picking up his mana signature. Follow me.” He began walking down the tunnels, prompting Nova to follow him. Nova: “Man, you have no idea how glad I am you were down here already.” *Pauses for a moment* “Come to think of it, why were you down here already?” Golurth: “I kept getting reports about ‘attempted fraud’ or whatever. Basically, guests that checked into one of my hotels in the area kept showing up with less people than they booked for, claiming that they never booked those spots in the first place. Said missing persons were always children, and I decided to investigate this stuff for myself. Found some weird holes next to said hotels, jumped in to investigate, ended up here.” Nova: “How long ago was that?” Golurth: “A few hours.” Nova: “You’ve just been wandering around down here for all that time?” Golurth: “Couldn’t find the exit and these walls seem to block my teleportation signal.” Nova: “Couldn’t you just use Temportal to teleport out?” Golurth: “...You know, I always forget about that thing.” The two kept walking in silence for a few moments. Nova: “So, uh, what are you going to do if we run into those spiders? Use Heatjet to fry them?” Golurth: “Well, that was the initial plan, but it occurs to me that consuming a crapton of oxygen underground like that would be probably be a bad idea. More likely that I’ll use Electrolite’s chain lightning.” Nova: “You sure your chain lightning can hit enough of them at once? The swarm Theo and I encountered must’ve had hundreds of spiders in it.” Golurth: “Oh. Come to think of it, I might need a bit help on that one.” Nova: “You want me to use Swarm 2’s flamethrower? It doesn’t use up oxygen.” Golurth: “Yeah, but it still creates smoke when it burns stuff, and we don’t exactly have a lot of ventilation down here. I’ll need you to use Rolling Stone’s sound waves to push them back if they start getting too close.” Nova: “Sounds like a plan.” There were a few minutes of silence as the two kept walking through the dark corridors. Suddenly, a soft skittering could be heard in the distance. Nova: “Sounds like they found us!” Golurth: “Here we go.” Golurth reached for SpecTrix symbol and twisted it, then pressed down, transforming into a glowing white humanoid with a patchy uniform and lightning-like features. He formed a large ball of electricity and held it up in the air, illuminating the area. Isaac/Electrolite: “Transform as soon as they get into view. I’ll set up an electric net for the moment, but who knows how long that’ll hold them.” As soon as he finished speaking, he ‘drew’ a grid of electricity in the air with a few flicks of his wrist and shot it out about two meters in front of them, creating an electric grid that spanned the height and width of the tunnel. After a few moments, the spider swarm suddenly appeared in the light, crawling towards the two. Nova pulled up the StarTrix. Nova: *Fiddling with the dial* “Dang it, couldn’t this thing be at least a bit easier to use?!” *Keeps trying to activate it* “Good grief, I swear this thing was a lot more cooperative last time! Screw it, let’s see if Swarm 2 can figure it out!” A buzzing cluster of golden nanobots suddenly gathered around the StarTrix, attaching to the dial in a golden star shape. Nova: *To Swarm 2* “Okay, give me Rolling Stone!” *Thinking* ‘Although All Star would probably be better if we weren’t underground...’ An emerald light flashed from the StarTrix as Swarm 2 activated it, transforming Nova. Meanwhile, the swarm of spiders had begun to break through the electric net, using the fried bodies of the first few spiders to create a gap in the grid. Electrolite: *Shooting chain lightning* “Oh, that’s nasty. Nova, did you get the StarTrix-” *Looks at Nova, pausing in shock for a second* “...working?” Nova had transformed, but not quite into Rolling Stone. Her current form was that of a rocky humanoid with golden accents and spikes, with a smoother body structure and fire-like light flickering on the top of its head. A golden star shape emblem surrounded the StarTrix symbol. Electrolite: “What did you do?!” Nova/???: “I don’t know! All I did was use Swarm 2 to help work this thing! I know it selected Rolling Stone!” Electrolite: “Hang on a second, you used Swarm 2 to select an alien? Did you think about any other aliens during the selection?” Nova/???: “Yeah, All Star.” Electrolite: *Turning his focus back to the spiders* “Well, that would explain it. You gotta be careful with how you command those things.” Nova/???: “So, what, this thing’s a fusion?” Electrolite: “That’s the gist of it.” Nova/???: “...That’s awesome! I think I’ll call it...Sunstone!” spiders arrive from down the tunnel, quickly breaking through Electrolite’s line of defense. Electrolite: *Increasing the range of his chain lightning* “That’s great and all, but I could really use some sound waves right about now!” Nova/Sunstone: “I’ll do you one better!” She quickly leaped up next to Electrolite and raised her arms, charging some sort of light in each of her fists. Sunstone: “Sonic Solarbeam!” She opened her fists into outward-facing pals, shooting massive light beams accompanied by explosive sonic waves from her arms. The combined force of the attack hit the spiders like a steamroller, practically disintegrating the front wave of them and blowing the rest to pieces in one huge, sustained attack. She eventually stopped the attack, having utterly decimated everything in front of them. Sunstone: *Proudly* “Ain’t no kill like overkill!” Electrolite: “...You’re definitely your father’s kid.” Isaac transformed back into Golurth and resumed his mana tracking. Nova followed behind, still transformed. Golurth: “You know that thing’s gonna overheat, right?” Sunstone: “Yeah, but I’m pretty sure it’s splitting the load with Swarm 2 at the moment, so it should be fine for a while.” Golurth: “Point taken.” ---- to later, as Golurth and Sunstone are still walking through the tunnels. They eventually arrive in front of a large hole in the ground that drops off into darkness. Golurth: “Theo’s mana signature should be right below us. We’re gonna have to jump down.” Sunstone: “Fine by me. Worst thing down there could only be more spiders.” Golurth: “I wouldn’t count on that.” The two leaped into the hole, falling a good fifty meters before hitting the ground. As they fell, the earth around them abruptly opened up into an enormous cavern dimly lit by strange crystalline structures. Large webs were strewn about the cave walls, each holding a good dozen large cocoons or so. Golurth: *Brushing himself off* “Well, I think we found the missing kids.” Sunstone: “Now we just need to get everybody out of here and find Theo, right?” Before Isaac could reply, a large grinding noise suddenly sounded from behind them. The two turned to see a massive, malformed spider-like creature standing behind them grinding its fangs. Alien: “I’m afraid I must put a pin in that plan of yours.” ---- and Sunstone jump back from the spider, assuming fighting positions. Golurth: “Is that so? Any particular reasons for that?” Spider: “These human hatchlings are going to be my food source during hibernation.” Sunstone: “Hibernation? It’s already like the middle of winter, dude.” Spider: “I hibernate during the period you humans refer to as ‘spring’. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not particularly suited for this planet’s standard seasonal changes.” Golurth: “Interesting, interesting. So, uh, is there any good reason we should let you go through with this little idea of yours, seeing as how you’ve kidnapped my son and god knows how many other kids?” Spider: “From your perspective, no. Not that there’s anything you could do about it.” Golurth: “Is that so?” *Turns to Nova* “Go find Theo. Once he’s out, you two can start freeing the other kids.” Sunstone: “What about you?” Golurth *Turns back to face the Alien Spider* “I’m going to take this creep mano e spidero.” With that, Isaac reach for the SpecTrix symbol, turning it and pressing it down, transforming into a meter-high tarantula-like alien named Spiderfreak. Spider: “Are you serious? You’re not even a third of my size!” Isaac/Spiderfreak: “Well, we’ll just have to fix that, won’t we?” Spiderfreak pulled out and slammed down on the SpecTrix symbol. Four clamps sprouted from it, gripping onto his chest. A green wave spread over his body, sprouting limbs that snapped through his exoskeleton. He began to grow and warp in shape, shredding apart his entire exoskeleton in a molt, revealing his new form. He had assumed an enormous humanoid shape with a red, black and brown color scheme. Spiderfreak: “Looks like somebody done screwed up, punk!” Before the Alien Spider could react, Ultimate Spiderfreak suddenly raised two abdomen-like appendages over his shoulders and began shooting venomous spikes from them like a Gatling gun. Meanwhile, Nova had begun looking for Theo. She eventually spotted a half-finished cocoon with the top half of an unconscious Theo sticking out of it. Sunstone: *Runs over to Theo* “Okay, should be easier to get him out. Should probably wake him up first, though.” She started shining a bright light in Theo’s face, quickly waking him up. Theo: *Rubbing his eyes* “Ugh...what’s going on?” Sunstone: “Wake up, lazy bones! We’ve got some kids to save!” Theo: “Wait, Nova?” *Looks Sunstone up and down* “What happened to you?” Sunstone: “I accidentally used Swarm 2 to make a fusion alien.” Nova pressed down on the StarTrix symbol, detransforming. She retracted Swarm 2, removing the golden star emblem, then handed the StarTrix back to Theo, who wasted no time in slipping it back on. He went through the alien select and pressed down on the dial, transforming into a purple humanoid alien with a sloped head, large claws, and math compass-like legs. He used the alien, called Viva La Vida, to rip his way out the webbing using his claws. la Vida: “Did you manage to find my dad?” Nova gestured over her shoulder, pointing out where Ultimate Spiderfreak was currently delivering a six-armed beat down on the Alien Spider. La Vida: “That’s a definite ‘yes’.” He hovered over to a nearby crystalline structure and tapped it with his right claw, causing it to split apart into several semi-humanoid living crystals with sharp arms. La Vida: “Alright, I need you three to start cutting these cocoons open and getting the people inside out. Make sure not to cut anyone.” The three living crystals gave a quick salute, then went along on their business. Nova: “That’s handy.” La Vida: “Yeah, but there are a lot people here. We should start cutting them down ourselves ASAP.” As the two rushed to do just that, Ultimate Spiderfreak was still fighting the Alien Spider, who managed to get in a hit that knocked him backwards. Spider: “I’ve spent months building this tunnel system and making it my home! What gives you the right to barge in and start screwing everything up?!” Spiderfreak: *Regaining his balance* “The fact that you go around kidnapping children and wiping everyone’s memories, for one!” Spider: “That is the work of my spawn, not me!” Spiderfreak: “And I’m sure the non-sentient spawn came up with this little plan on their own, right?” Spider: “Well, no, but-” The Alien Spider was interrupted by a triple uppercut to the face, sending it flying and flipping it over onto its back, immobilizing it. Spiderfreak: “Well then, you deserve everything that’s coming to you!” Spider: *Worriedly* “Wait! Y-you people generally have some sort of anti-killing code, r-right?!” Spiderfreak: “Generally speaking, yes. However, generally speaking, the people I’m fighting haven’t tried to kill and eat '''my son!” Before the Alien Spider could respond, Ultimate Spiderfreak suddenly devolved back into Spiderfreak and transformed into a rocky, gray humanoid with a green and black uniform that had the intergalactic peace symbol on the front. Isaac/Rockoustic: “Hey, how about an all-expenses paid trip to the goddamn moon?!” He swiftly pulled back his right fist and punched the spider as hard as he could, using sound waves to distribute the force of the blow to its entire body. As soon as his fist made impact, the spider was sent flying an an explosion of dust, smashing through the cavern ceiling and whatever had been built above it on the surface, soaring into the sky and eventually burning up in the atmosphere. Rockoustic lowered his fist and detransformed. Rockoustic/Isaac: *Adjusts his hat* “Keep the change, you filthy animal.” ---- to the inside of Plumber Base UT1. Theo and Nova are speaking with Alpha. Theo: “After that, my dad teleported each kid back to their respective families with Ultimate Temportal.” Alpha: “I see. With it gone, the memory-dampening effects it maintained should be wearing off.” Theo: “It probably could’ve gone a lot faster if I had a fire alien. Just run through the place and fry everything before the oxygen runs out. Simple.” Alpha: “Noted, though I’m not sure what you expect me to do about it.” Theo: “Oh, nothing. I’m just venting.” Nova: “Hey, lighten up a bit. We saved the day and all anyways, what’s the issue?” Theo: “Yeah, but we would’ve been screwed without my dad’s help. What happens if we’re stuck like that again but he isn’t able to help?” Nova: “Then we call your mom.” Theo: “That’s not the point.” Alpha: “I understand your concerns. Perhaps you should consider peruse of the training facilities on base.” Nova: “We have those?” Alpha: “Construction on them was only finished recently.” Theo: *Cracks his neck* “Sounds like a plan. When can we get started?” Major Events * Isaac Logical is a major character for the first time since Rebooted's finale. * Nova wears the StarTrix temporarily * Nova uses Swarm 2 with the StarTrix to create a fusion alien. * Sunstone makes her debut. * Ultimate Spiderfreak makes his debut. * Viva La Vida makes his debut. Characters Protagonists * Theodore Logical * Nova Eldridge * Isaac Logical * Alpha Antagonists * Alien Spider * Spider Spawn Aliens Used By Theo * Holy Diver * Viva La Vida (Debut) By Nova * Move Along * Sunstone By Isaac * Heatjet * Terminano * Golurth (x2) * Electrolite * Spiderfreak (Evolved) * Ultimate Spiderfreak (Debut) * Rockoustic * Temportal (Offscreen; Evolved) * Ultimate Temportal (Offscreen) Trivia * Isaac is shown to still be using the '''Dero subtype of Amprey for his Electrolite transformation. * This episode was primarily inspired by Stephen King's It. Category:Episodes Category:Tech 10 Category:Tech 10: Star Spirit Category:Episodes of Tech 10: Star Spirit Category:Earth-83 Category:CaT